I chose one of four options at the start, and I chose the number one clan in Lingnan.

The bald man spat on the ground.

"Pay management fees? Who do you think you are? This market is owned by Boss Liu. Without him, not even a fly could get in."

Just then, a fat man walked out of the gate. He was wearing a plaid shirt, had a large belly, and was carrying a black leather bag under his arm.

His leather shoes were polished to a shine, and he wore a gold necklace about the thickness of his little finger around his neck.

"What's all the noise about?" the fat man asked as he walked over.

The bald man quickly put on a smiling face and went to light the fire. "Boss Liu, from the Lin family of Tazhai, has brought several cartloads of rotten fruit and insists on selling them at the market."

Mr. Liu, with a cigar in his mouth, walked up to the first tractor. He sniffed, the strong, exotic aroma hitting him right in the head.

He often drank and stayed up late, and his head was always foggy. But when he inhaled the aroma, he felt refreshed and his headache disappeared.

Boss Liu peered into the truck and saw it was full of golden fruit. He reached out, picked one up, wiped the peel with his thumb, and took a big bite.

The juice burst open, and Boss Liu devoured the fruit in just a few bites.

He had never eaten anything so delicious in his life. After swallowing the fruit, his stomach felt warm and cozy, and even his morning hangover was completely gone.

He figured that if he took this stuff to the county or city, packaged it up, and sold it for 100 yuan a pound, people would be scrambling to buy it. This was a sure-fire way to make money.

He threw the fruit pit on the ground and crushed it with his leather shoe.

"What's this fruit called?" Boss Liu asked Lin Fu.

"These are golden fruits grown by the Lin family themselves," Lin Fu replied.

Boss Liu curled his lip. "What golden fruit? Never even heard of it. Judging by its color and size, it's probably been injected with hormones."

"If something of unknown origin gets into my market and makes someone sick, who will be responsible?"

Lin Fu panicked. "Boss Liu, our fruit is absolutely pesticide-free, completely natural. It's grown by the whole clan using well water."

Boss Liu waved his hand, interrupting Lin Fu.

"Alright. Considering you people from Tazhai have come all this way, I'll take the fruit. One cent a pound, unload it all and weigh it."

Lin Fu's eyes widened, thinking he had misheard.

"A dime? Mr. Liu, are you kidding me? Growing these fruits took a lot of effort; a dime wouldn't even cover the water bill!"

"Take it or leave it," said Boss Liu, chewing on his cigar.

"Besides Hongfa Farmers Market, no one in this town dares to buy your goods. If you take them to the street to sell, the urban management officers will take away your stall in five minutes."

Lin Fu gritted his teeth. His great-grandfather had instructed him before leaving home that the Lin family's goods should only be sold at high prices. One cent per pound—this was utterly humiliating to the Lin family.

"We're not selling anymore," Lin Fu shouted to the tractor driver. "Brothers, turn around! We're going to sell in the county!"

The driver put the tractor in reverse, and black smoke billowed from its exhaust pipe.

Boss Liu's expression changed. He wasn't about to let this lucrative opportunity slip away. He gave the bald man a wink.

The bald man rushed forward with a baseball bat and smashed it into the windshield of the tractor.

Glass shards splashed all over the driver. The bald man reached into the driver's seat and pulled out the car keys.

"Trying to leave? Too late. These fruits are going to be sold today, whether you want to or not," the bald man roared.

A dozen or so thugs rushed out of the market, carrying steel pipes and machetes, and surrounded five tractors and tricycles.

Lin Fu jumped off the bus and stood in front of the carriage. "What do you want?! Trying to force a sale in broad daylight?"

"Unload the goods!" Boss Liu ordered.

The thugs climbed onto the carriage, grabbed the bamboo baskets full of golden fruit, and threw them forcefully off the carriage.

"Bang! Bang!" The bamboo basket crashed onto the cement ground and shattered into pieces. Golden fruits rolled all over the ground.

The thugs deliberately lifted their leather shoes and stomped hard on the fruit. The flesh was crushed, and golden juice flowed into the sewers. The ground was covered in rotten fruit pulp.

"Don't step on it! Don't step on it!" Lin Fu's eyes reddened, and he rushed forward to hug the leg of a thug. This was the lifeblood that the entire clan had watered and cultivated for three months, day and night.

The bald man walked over and hit Lin Fu on the head with a baseball bat.

Lin Fu screamed and collapsed to the ground, clutching his head. Blood seeped out from between his fingers, staining half his face red.

"Uncle Fu!" A dozen or so young men from the auditorium who were accompanying the cart were furious. They grabbed carrying poles and ropes from the cart and rushed forward to fight the thugs.

The people in the auditorium had never drunk the enhancement potion; they were just ordinary farmers. Across from them were professional thugs who fought every day, wielding nothing but iron weapons.

Chaos reigned in front of the gate. The dull thud of steel pipes smashing flesh, the crisp crack of carrying poles breaking, and screams mingled together.

Just as a young man from the Lin family picked up a carrying pole, he was held down by two thugs.

The bald man smashed a steel pipe into the young man's right arm, the sound of bones breaking echoed, and the young man rolled on the ground in pain.

A few minutes passed. More than a dozen young men from the Lin family lay on the ground. Some had broken arms, and others had bloodied heads.

Of the 10,000 jin of golden fruit, more than half were overturned on the ground and trampled into a pile of mud.

Boss Liu walked up to Lin Fu and kicked Lin Fu's hand away. He stepped on a whole golden fruit and crushed it forcefully.

"Go back and tell your new great-grandfather." Boss Liu spat out a mouthful of phlegm.

"You have control over the sand in Tazhai Town, but I, Liu Da Nao Tou, have the final say on the fresh fruits and vegetables in this town."

Tomorrow, obediently bring over the remaining fruit; the price will remain the same as before, one cent per pound.

"If you lose even a pound, I'll go to Tazhai and cut down all your fruit trees. Get out!"

The thugs threw the car keys on the ground.

Lin Fu, clutching his bleeding head, got up from the ground. Gritting his teeth, he called to the younger men who could still move, and they helped lift his brother, whose arm had been broken, onto the tractor.

The remaining half-cartload of rotten fruit wasn't thrown away; the rotten bamboo baskets were also packed into the carriage.

The convoy, billowing black smoke, left Hongfa Farmers Market in a sorry state.

Around noon, a tractor drove into the courtyard of the ancestral hall in Tazhai Town.

The yard was filled with the smell of blood and the sour smell of rotten fruit.

Lin Ting sat in a grand chair. Lin Fei stood beside him. Second Uncle ran out from a side room, leaning on his cane.

The tractor came to a stop. Lin Fu knelt down on the bluestone slab with a thud. The blood on his head stained a large area of ​​his black cloth jacket red.

Seven or eight young men lay groaning in the carriage. The bamboo baskets were all broken, and the fruit underneath had rotted into a puddle of mud.

"Grandpa... I'm useless." Lin Fu cried out, pounding the ground with his fists.

"Liu Da Nao tried to drive the price down to one cent per pound. When we refused, they overturned the baskets, trampled the fruit, and even broke our brothers' arms. He said he was the one who called the shots in the fruit business in this town."

The second uncle looked at the rotten fruit filling the carriage and was so heartbroken that he burst into tears. He raised his cane and struck the ground.

"What a tragedy! The money tree bestowed upon us by our ancestors has been completely squandered!"

The Lin family members gathered in the courtyard were all in an uproar.

"Grandpa! Let's fight them!"

"Where are Zhongtang's men?! Grab your weapons and go to town to kill him!"

The crowd was filled with righteous indignation. More than two hundred men from the Lin family picked up shovels and hoes, their eyes red, waiting for Lin Ting to say a word.

Lin Ting raised his hand, and the courtyard fell silent.

Lin Ting stood up and walked to the tractor. He looked at the crushed golden fruits in the truck bed and at his tribesmen with broken bones and blood all over their heads.

He stretched out his right hand and grabbed a handful of rotten fruit pulp. Golden juice mixed with dirt dripped from between his fingers onto the bluestone slab.

Lin Ting remained expressionless, turned around, walked back to the armchair, and sat down again.

Place your right hand flat on the solid wood armrest, with your five fingers folded together.

"Smack."

He crushed the sturdy, century-old rosewood handrail into powder with one hand.

A splinter of wood pierced his palm, leaving a bloody mark, but he didn't even glance at it.